The 45th Study Days of the Ecole de la Causefreudienne : Argument To make a couple : in English

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Faire
Couple – Liaisons inconscientes

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14th and SUNDAY,
NOVEMBER 15th, 2015

PALAIS DES CONGRES – PARIS

The 45th Study Days of the Ecole de la
Cause freudienne

To not go without… is to make a
couple, which, as we say, «　is not self evident　».
– Jacques Lacan

A whole world resounds here: the
tension between the one and the two, the self and the
other… Is the human condition made for celibacy or for
the couple? Let’s start with this: solitude exists and
the couple is a fiction. The first is tolerated,
endured, at best accepted; the second requires a lot of
work, indeed an asceticism. Language transforming
everything into its opposite, we’ll say it’s also a
party!

Lifelong Model –
The parental couple, that of the conjuguo, the
mother-child bond, the fraternal duo, all these
relationships that within a group, go by twos.

Imaginary
– Two requires an image. The place from whence I love
myself (I is an other, the other, is me). The
exaltation of a lover (rivalry, jealousies, passions).

Symbolic –
Entering into the career of the two, implies speaking:
«　I am your wife, you are my man　»; «　I am…, you are…　».
Social and family semblances of two matched beings who
belong to each other, hinges on language.

Real –
Speech nourishes powerful ties, those of unconscious
enjoyment.

Behind the
scenes. Under the apparent
harmony of a couple, a more obscure relationship is at
play on the Other scene. The young bride dreams of the
Prince of Wales, the serial lover desperately waits
for the woman of his life….Love is ignorance, desire
lies elsewhere, one loves whom he thinks he hates,
whether it be for a divine detail (a voice, a look) or
an unbearable one! Who, what do we actually pair up
with?

Today the inflation of the web offer,
the consumerist style of Internet dating is an incentive
for optimizing the partners and for profiling: an
illusory bet on the quality of the suitors. Do we not
always choose the same “he or she”?

Rigorous
conditions dictate their law. Within the
confined space of its eroticism, faithful to its
phantasy, the subject moves towards the other. Something
in it, stronger than it, the Lacanian object a,
directs it toward its one and only. And each encounter
makes one regret the lack of absolute satisfaction to
which one tends asymptotically: an irreducible gap, for
the other is incommensurable with a. A horizon
of absolute perfection, without the mediation of this
object can only result in a folie à deux, or in
other versions, (fusion, a clinging relationship, love
mysticism, “immixtion” of the subjects).

Couples aren’t
made haphazardly, but by the same token, they obey
contingency. The unconscious program is
invested, activated by those, met by chance, who made
it resonate unknowingly. Later, the symptom will take
over, establishing the couple over time. What makes
the other fallible and disarmed is precisely that
which attracts and snares. Simply stated, the other
captures me with his or her symptom! It could be
someone elsea, but this is the only one on Earth! We
end up by creating a symptom à deux.

We are
irreparably alone. In the unconscious, my
satisfaction is complementary to that of no one. As for
enjoyment, everything is set (sex, work, smartphone…).
This subjective solitude can only tempered by the
partner’s becoming an integral part of myself, that is,
of my symptom. The couple distracts us from addiction:
delicate calculation of enjoyment, to always be
restarted between the masculine mode – that brings each
individual back to the solitude of his or her phantasy –
and the feminine mode (demanding that the other speak
and love), orienting the individual toward the couple.

At a time that we struggle to believe
in traditional social and familial solutions, the desire
between two people varies and spreads in a way that
privileges connection: resistance to the
interchangeability of subjects, response to the
relocation of the Other (“where are you?”). We create
the couple, “geolocated” with the neighbor, the brother,
the boyfriend, the lover…　

And the couple
analysand – psychoanalyst? Amusing to encounter,
that which inscribes itself as one less, a unique
opportunity to find out what makes a couple.

Christiane Alberti

Saturday 14th November　–　Multiple Rooms

How does one become a couple today?

Testimonials and clinical conversations
from the psychoanalytic praxis (chamber / institution)

Sunday 15th November –　Plenary – Large Amphitheatre

Artists, intellectuals and writers will
come to debate with psychoanalysts about contemporary
diversity in relationships.

Online Registration
• Individual
Registration: 120 €
• Reduced Tariff
(with proof):
Students (less than 28 years):　50 €　–　Unemployed:　80 €

Registration by cheque　in
favour of ECF
Download the registration form:　J45-Inscription-individuelle
To be addressed to: ECF JOURNEES　– 1 rue Huysmans 75006
Paris

Registration under the rubric of
training:
Supported by your employer as:
• Continuing Education 220 €
• Continuing Education (Medicine) 120 €
Download the registration form for continuing
education:　J45-Inscription-Formation
To be received before 15th October 2015 and addressed
to:
UFORCA pour UPJL, Secrétariat général, 15 Place Charles
Gruet, 33000 Bordeaux.

All necessary information and practicalities can be found
at www.fairecouple.fr

Download the mobile application journeeecf
Mail:　journeesecf@gmail.com

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For an introduction to the two days of the
journées,　the theme, pre-program information and the
direction of our work: Download the e-flyer

Director of Journées: Christiane Alberti
Steering Committee: Damien Guyonnet, Virginie
Leblanc, and Camilo Ramirez